Fact or Fiction: What can we trust from Week 1?

Matt Williamson is a former scout for the Cleveland Browns and spent 10 years at ESPN as a scout and co-host of "The Football Today Podcast." Find him on Twitter @WilliamsonNFL.

Week 1 of the 2017 NFL season is in the books. We certainly know much more now than we did analyzing the offseason and preseason, but it's also very important that we don’t overreact to that first slate of games.

More than ever, many of the league’s top players played few snaps in the preseason, so this was their first experience playing an entire game since the 2016 season.

There was rust and there was fatigue, but both should be far less of an issue as the season goes along. Also, teams have yet to put true tendencies on film, which greatly affects game planning.

But what did we see this past week that we can believe and what was a fluke? Below are some facts and fiction.

FACT: Ignoring a bad offensive line in the offseason is a terrible idea

Yes, this past draft class was poor for incoming offensive linemen and the free agency market showed us that quality (and even subpar) starting linemen will get overpaid in a league starving for offensive line play. However, the Giants and Bengals decided that their leaky lines didn’t need fixing, and instead they would just improve the offense by improving the skill position players.

Houston also fits this mold, as they invested in Deshaun Watson and D’Onta Foreman rather than offensive line help. Compounding matters with these franchises, Cincinnati allowed Andrew Whitworth and Kevin Zeitler to depart in free agency, while the Texans have their best lineman, Duane Brown, holding out. In Week 1, in embarrassing fashion across the board, these three teams combined to score 10 points, with the Bengals being shut out by Baltimore.

Now, there are many other incriminating stats that can be cited as to how awful these three offenses were in their debut, but let’s just say it's safe to say that blocking is still rather important in today’s NFL.

Fiction: The Detroit Lions are a contender

Coming off an impressive victory over the Arizona Cardinals, many will now look at Detroit as a team ready to take the next step and contend in the NFC. While this is the right way of thinking about the Lions' offense, Detroit’s defense will keep this franchise from contending in 2017.

Matthew Stafford was excellent as his offense put up 35 points on a great Cardinals defense. Stafford is progressing well under Jim Bob Cooter and his massive new contract is justified. His supporting cast on the offensive side of the ball is also strong enough, although this remains a very Stafford-reliant team overall. As was often the case last year, Stafford rallied his team back when it mattered most and excelled from the no-huddle.

But this defense was among the very worst in the league in 2016 and remains problematic, even though the secondary coverage and pass rush were strong in this contest. Carson Palmer was rested a great deal during the preseason and in training camp. He didn’t play well in Week 1 and threw three interceptions. His left tackle, John Wetzel, was an utter disaster.

The Lions won’t be as fortunate every week as they were on Sunday when the Cardinals lost their most important player, running back David Johnson, for 2-3 months with a significant wrist injury. It could be a long year for Arizona, whose offense scored just 10 points in this game. Unfortunately, the same is true for the Lions' defense.

Fact: Sam Bradford is legit - and so are the Vikings

Over his career, Bradford has been highly polarizing. You could make a very strong case that no quarterback in recent memory had more excuses made for him. Or, you could be more logical and realize that Bradford was mostly in dreadful situations throughout his career, suffered season-ending knee injuries in back-to-back seasons, and had to adapt on the fly to new offensive system after new offensive system.

Bradford became a Viking just days before the 2016 season began. The year before, he was in Chip Kelly’s system in Philadelphia and quietly played well in the second half. That had to be a massive adjustment for the former first overall selection, but Bradford still thrived in his new home. That is, until the Vikings' offensive line was so decimated that this team couldn’t run the ball in any capacity or throw downfield with any semblance of regularity.

Still, Bradford made the best of it and was remarkably accurate while he learned the new offense on the fly. But as he showed on Monday night, Bradford is capable of greatness when the conditions are at least at a league-average level. The Vikings now have an offensive line that isn't just a giant sieve, and Bradford is throwing to the best receivers of his career.

Of course, it was against a Saints defense that has struggled mightily in recent seasons, but that should not detract from how incredibly Bradford threw the football or how explosive Minnesota’s offense has become in the past year. He is playing like the first pick in a draft - and the Vikings are a major contender because of it.